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Components in a Comprehensive Definition of College Readiness

By: David T. Conley

College readiness is a multi-faceted concept that includes factors both internal and external to the school environment. The model presented here emerges from a review of the literature and includes the skills and knowledge that can be most directly influenced by schools.

In this article:

The definition of college readiness developed below relies on a framework of four interdependent skill areas (see Figure 1).

In practice, these various facets are not
mutually exclusive or perfectly nested as
portrayed in the model. They interact with
one another extensively. For example, a lack of
college knowledge often affects the decisions
students make regarding the specific content
knowledge they choose to study and master. Or a lack of attention to academic behaviors is
one of the most frequent causes of problems
for first-year students, whether they possess
the necessary content knowledge and key
cognitive strategies.

What the model argues for is a more
comprehensive look at what it means to be college-ready, a perspective that emphasizes
the interconnectedness of all of the facets contained in the model. This is the key point of this definition, that all facets of college readiness must be identified and eventually measured if more students are to be made
college-ready.

Key cognitive strategies

The success of a well-prepared college
student is built upon a foundation of key key
cognitive strategies that enable students to
learn content from a range of disciplines. Unfortunately, the development of key key
cognitive strategies in high school is often
overshadowed by an instructional focus on
de-contextualized content and facts necessary
to pass exit examinations or simply to keep
students busy and classrooms quiet.

For the most part, state high-stakes
standardized tests require students to
recall or recognize fragmented and isolated
bits of information. Those that do contain
performance tasks are severely limited in the
time the tasks can take and their breadth or
depth. The tests rarely require students to
apply their learning and almost never require
students to exhibit proficiency in higher
forms of cognition (Marzano, Pickering, &
McTighe, 1993).

Several studies of college faculty members
nationwide, regardless of the selectivity of the
university, expressed near-universal agreement
that most students arrive unprepared for the
intellectual demands and expectations of
postsecondary (Conley, 2003a). For example,
one study found that faculty reported that
the primary areas in which first-year students
needed further development were critical
thinking and problem solving (Lundell, Higbee,
Hipp, & Copeland, 2004).

The term "key cognitive strategies"
was selected for this model to describe the
intelligent behaviors necessary for college
readiness and to emphasize that these
behaviors need to be developed over a period
of time such that they become ways of thinking,
habits in how intellectual activities are pursued. In other words, key cognitive strategies are
patterns of intellectual behavior that lead to
the development of cognitive strategies and
capabilities necessary for college-level work. The term key cognitive strategies invokes a
more disciplined approach to thinking than
terms such as "dispositions" or "thinking
skills." The term indicates intentional and
practiced behaviors that become a habitual
way of working toward more thoughtful and
intelligent action (Costa & Kallick, 2000).

The specific key cognitive strategies
referenced in this paper are those shown to
be closely related to college success. They
include the following as the most important
manifestations of this way of thinking:

Intellectual openness:

The student possesses curiosity and a thirst for deeper understanding, questions the views of others when those views are not logically supported, accepts constructive criticism, and changes personal views if warranted by the evidence. Such openmindedness helps students understand the ways in which knowledge is constructed, broadens personal perspectives and helps students deal with the novelty and ambiguity often encountered in the study of new subjects and new materials.

Inquisitiveness:

The student engages in active inquiry and dialogue about subject matter and research questions and seeks evidence to defend arguments, explanations, or lines of reasoning. The student does not simply accept as given any assertion that is presented or conclusion that is reached, but asks why things are so.

Analysis:

The student identifies and evaluates data, material, and sources for quality of content, validity, credibility, and relevance. The student compares and contrasts sources and findings and generates summaries and explanations of source materials.

Reasoning, argumentation, proof:

The student constructs well-reasoned arguments or proofs to explain phenomena or issues; utilizes recognized forms of reasoning to construct an argument and defend a point of view or conclusion; accepts critiques of or challenges to assertions; and addresses critiques and challenges by providing a logical explanation or refutation, or by acknowledging the accuracy of the critique or challenge.

Interpretation:

The student analyzes competing and conflicting descriptions of an event or issue to determine the strengths and flaws in each description and any commonalities among or distinctions between them; synthesizes the results of an analysis of competing or conflicting descriptions of an event or issue or phenomenon into a coherent explanation; states the interpretation that is most likely correct or is most reasonable, based on the available evidence; and presents orally or in writing an extended description, summary, and evaluation of varied perspectives and conflicting points of view on a topic or issue.

Precision and accuracy:

The student knows what type of precision is appropriate to the task and the subject area, is able to increase precision and accuracy through successive approximations generated from a task or process that is repeated, and uses precision appropriately to reach correct conclusions in the context of the task or subject area at hand.

These are at the heart of the intellectual
endeavor of the university. They are necessary
to discern truth and meaning as well as to
pursue them. They are at the heart of how
postsecondary faculty members think, and how
they think about their subject areas. Without the
capability to think in these ways, the entering
college student either struggles mightily until
these habits begin to develop or misses out on
the largest portion of what college has to offer,
which is how to think about the world.

Academic knowledge and skills

Successful academic preparation for
college is grounded in two important
dimensions — key cognitive strategies
and content knowledge. Understanding
and mastering key content knowledge is
achieved through the exercise of broader
cognitive skills embodied within the key
cognitive strategies. With this relationship in
mind, it is entirely proper and worthwhile to
consider some of the general areas in which
students need strong grounding in content
that is foundational to the understanding
of academic disciplines. The case for the
importance of challenging content as the
framework for developing thinking skills
and key cognitive strategies has been made
elsewhere and will not be repeated in depth
here (Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 2000).

In order to illustrate the academic
knowledge and skills necessary for college
success, a brief discussion of the key structures,
concepts, and knowledge of core academic
subjects is presented below. This presentation
is not a substitute for a comprehensive listing
of essential academic knowledge and skills. A more complete exposition is contained in
"Understanding University Success," produced
by Standards for Success through a three-year
study in which more than 400 faculty and
staff members from 20 research universities
participated in extensive meetings and reviews
to identify what students must do to succeed in
entry-level courses at their institutions (Conley,
2003a). These findings have been confirmed in
subsequent studies.

This overview begins with two academic
skill areas that have repeatedly been identified
as being centrally important to college success:
writing and research. This is followed by brief
narrative descriptions of content from a number
of core academic areas.

Overarching Academic Skills

Writing:

Writing is the means by which students are evaluated at least to some degree in nearly every postsecondary course. Expository, descriptive, and persuasive writing are particularly important types of writing in college. Students are expected to write a lot in college and to do so in relatively short periods of time.

Students need to know how to pre-write, how to edit, and how to re-write a piece before it is submitted and, often, after it has been submitted once and feedback has been provided. College writing requires students to present arguments clearly, substantiate each point, and utilize the basics of a style manual when constructing a paper. College-level writing is largely free of grammatical, spelling, and usage errors.

Research:

College courses increasingly require students to be able to identify and utilize appropriate strategies and methodologies to explore and answer problems and to conduct research on a range of questions. To do so, students must be able to evaluate the appropriateness of a variety of source material and then synthesize and incorporate the material into a paper or report. They must also be able to access a variety of types of information from a range of locations, formats, and source environments.

Core academic subjects knowledge and skills

English:

The knowledge and skills developed in entry-level English courses enable students to engage texts critically and create well written, organized, and supported work products in both oral and written formats. The foundations of English include reading comprehension and literature, writing and editing, information gathering, and analysis, critiques and connections.

To be ready to succeed in such courses, students need to build vocabulary and word analysis skills, including roots and derivations. These are the building blocks of advanced literacy. Similarly, students need to utilize techniques such as strategic reading that will help them read and understand a wide range of non-fiction and technical texts. Knowing how to slow down to understand key points, when to re-read a passage, and how to underline key terms and concepts strategically so that only the most important points are highlighted are examples of strategies that aid comprehension and retention of key content.

Math:

Most important for success in college math is a thorough understanding of the basic concepts, principles, and techniques of algebra. This is different than simply having been exposed to these ideas. Much of the subsequent mathematics they will encounter draw upon or utilize these principles. In addition, having learned these elements of mathematical thinking at a deep level, they understand what it means to understand mathematical concepts deeply and are more likely to do so in subsequent areas of mathematical study. College-ready students possess more than a formulaic understanding of mathematics. They have the ability to apply conceptual understandings in order to extract a problem from a context, use mathematics to solve the problem, and then interpret the solution back into the context. They know when and how to estimate to determine the reasonableness of answers and can use a calculator appropriately as a tool, not a crutch.

Science:

College science courses emphasize scientific thinking in all their facets. In addition to utilizing all the steps in the scientific method, students learn what it means to think like a scientist. This includes the communication conventions followed by scientists, the way that empirical evidence is used to draw conclusions, and how such conclusions are then subject to challenge and interpretation.

Students come to appreciate that scientific knowledge is both constant and changing at any given moment, and that the evolution of scientific knowledge does not mean that previous knowledge was necessarily "wrong." Students grasp that scientists think in terms of models and systems as ways to comprehend complex phenomena. This helps them make sense out of the flow of ideas and concepts they encounter in entry-level college courses and the overall structure of the scientific discipline they are studying. In their science courses, students master core concepts, principles, laws, and vocabulary of the scientific discipline being studied. Laboratory settings are the environments where content knowledge and scientific key cognitive strategies converge to help students think scientifically and integrate learned content knowledge.

Social Studies:

The social sciences entail a range of subject areas, each with its own content base and analytic techniques and conventions. The courses an entry-level college student most typically takes are in geography, political science, economics, psychology, sociology, history, and the humanities. The scientific methods that are common across the social studies emphasize the skills of interpreting sources, evaluating evidence and competing claims, and understanding themes and the overall flow of events within larger frameworks or organizing structures. Helping students to be aware that the social sciences consist of certain "big ideas" (theories and concepts) that are used to order and structure all of the detail that often overwhelms them can help build mental scaffolds that lead toward thinking like a social scientist.

World Languages:

The goal of second language study is to communicate effectively with and receive communication from speakers of another language in authentic cultural contexts through the skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Learning another language involves much more than memorizing a system of grammatical rules. It requires the learner to understand the cultures from which the language arises and in which it resides, use the language to communicate accurately, and use the learner's first language and culture as a model for comparison with the language and culture being learned. Second language proficiency can improve learning in other disciplines, such as English, history and art, and expand professional, personal, and social opportunities. Language learners need to understand the structure and conventions of a language, but not through word-for-word translation or memorization of de-contextualized grammatical rules. Instead, students of a language need to master meaning in more holistic ways and in context.

The Arts:

The arts refer to college subject areas including art history, dance, music, theater, and visual arts. Students ready for college-level work in the arts possess an understanding of and appreciation for the contributions made by the most innovative creators in the field. Students come to understand themselves as instruments of communication and expression who demonstrate mastery of basic oral and physical expression through sound, movement, and visual representations. They understand the role of the arts as an instrument of social and political expression. They formulate and present difficult questions through their personal artistic visions. They are able to justify their aesthetic decisions when creating or performing a piece of work and know how to make decisions regarding the proper venue for performing or exhibiting any creative product.

Academic behaviors

This facet of college readiness encompasses
a range of behaviors that reflect greater
student self-awareness, self-monitoring,
and self-control of a series of processes and
behaviors necessary for academic success. These are distinguished from key cognitive
strategies by the fact that they tend to be more
completely independent of a particular content
area, whereas the key cognitive strategies are
always developed within the ways of knowing
a particular content area. The key academic
behaviors consist largely of self-monitoring
skills and study skills.

Self-monitoring is a form of metacognition,
the ability to think about how one is thinking. Examples of metacognitive skills include:
awareness of one's current level of mastery
and understanding of a subject, including key
misunderstandings and blind spots; the ability
to reflect on what worked and what needed
improvement in any particular academic task;
the tendency to persist when presented with a
novel, difficult, or ambiguous task; the tendency
to identify and systematically select among and
employ a range of learning strategies; and the
capability to transfer learning and strategies
from familiar settings and situations to new
ones (Bransford et al., 2000). Research on the
thinking of effective learners has shown that
these individuals tend to monitor actively,
regulate, evaluate, and direct their own
thinking (Ritchhart, 2002).

Another important area of college readiness
is student mastery of the study skills necessary
for college success. The underlying premise is
simple: academic success requires the mastery
of key skills necessary to comprehend material
and complete academic tasks successfully, and
the nature of college learning in particular
requires that significant amounts of time be
devoted to learning outside of class for success to be achieved in class.

An additional critical
set of study skills is the ability to participate
successfully in a study group and recognize the
critical importance of study groups to success
in specific subjects. Examples of specific time
management techniques and habits include
accurately estimating how much time it takes
to complete all outstanding and anticipated
tasks and allocating sufficient time to complete
the tasks; using calendars and creating to-do lists to organize studying into productive
chunks of time; locating and utilizing settings
conducive to proper study; and prioritizing
study time in relation to competing demands
such as work and socializing.

Contextual skills and awareness

The importance of this broad category has
only recently been highlighted as an ever-wider
range of students apply to college. Contextual
factors encompass primarily the privileged
information necessary to understand how
college operates as a system and culture. It is this
lack of understanding of the context of college
that causes many students to become alienated,
frustrated, and even humiliated during the
freshman year and decide that college is not the
place for them. Examples of key context skills and
awareness include a systemic understanding of
the postsecondary educational system combined
with specific knowledge of the norms, values, and
conventions of interactions in the college context,
and the human relations skills necessary to cope
within this system even if it is very different from
the community the student has just left.

This does not necessarily mean that students
need to disown their cultural backgrounds,
heritage, and traditions, only that they need
to understand the relationship between their
cultural assumptions and those operating in
college. Success in college is enhanced for
students who possess interpersonal and social
skills that enable them to interact with a diverse cross-section of academicians and peers. These
skills include the ability to collaborate and work in
a team; understand the norms of the "academic"
culture and how one interacts with professors
and others in that environment; interact with
people from different backgrounds and cultures;
communicate informally; and demonstrate
leadership skills in a variety of settings.

Another important area of contextual
awareness is known as "college knowledge." This
is information, formal and informal, stated and
unstated, necessary for both gaining admission
to and navigating within the postsecondary
system. College knowledge includes an
understanding of the following processes:
college admissions including curricular, testing,
and application requirements; college options
and choices, including the tiered nature of
postsecondary education; tuition costs and the
financial aid system; placement requirements,
testing, and standards; the culture of college;
and the challenge level of college courses,
including increasing expectations of higher
education (Lundell et al., 2004).

Admissions requirements, and timelines
in particular, are extremely complicated, and
students often do not know or understand
the importance of either until it is too late. Specific institutions have additional special
requirements and exceptions that are not
immediately evident. Financial aid options are
largely unknown or substantially misunderstood
by many students most in need of such support. The economically well-off are more likely
to have this knowledge than working-class
families or families whose children are the first
generation to attend college (Conley, 2005;
Robbins et al., 2004; Venezia et al., 2004).